♻RetweetHadji Girl Update
Wed, Jun 14, 2006 at 2:43:28 pm PDT
Reuters begins their latest piece on the “Hadji Girl” controversy by repeating CAIR’s smears and distortions about the video once again: Marine being probed over song on killing Iraqis. (Hat tip: Allahpundit.)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Marine Corps is investigating whether a Marine did anything wrong by singing an obscenity laced [Marines! Using obscenities! Gasp! —ed.] song to a laughing and cheering crowd of fellow U.S. troops in Iraq making light of killing Iraqis.
In the song’s lyrics, the Iraqis who are killed are either 1) insurgents trying to kill the song’s protagonist, or 2) Iraqis who are killed by the insurgents. Just a little detail Reuters thinks is unimportant.
A four-minute video of the performance, posted on the Internet, showed Cpl. Joshua Belile, who returned home from Iraq in March, singing lyrics about encountering an Iraqi woman and her family.
The lyrics are about a Marine being lured into an ambush by an Iraqi woman, whose family then tries to kill him. But sure, I suppose you could say this is “encountering an Iraqi woman and her family.”
He sings, “I grabbed her little sister and put her in front of me. As the bullets began to fly, the blood sprayed from between her eyes, and then I laughed maniacally.” In the background, laughing, clapping and cheers can be heard.
And again, “the bullets began to fly” because, in the song, the girl’s father and brother were shooting her with AK-47s.
You could argue that the line “grabbed her little sister and put her in front of me” is offensive, sure. But: 1) it’s a dashed-off amateur song, not a reality, and 2) it’s obviously intended to be dark, battlefield humor.
The Council on American Islamic Relations is hoping you’ll be so offended that a Marine could utter this one line that you won’t notice every other claim they’re making about the song is a lie.
But the Marine Corps is dancing to CAIR’s tune:
Marine Corps officials said on Wednesday their preliminary inquiry will focus on whether Belile broke military law or rules in writing and singing a song with offensive lyrics to an audience of other troops. Another concern, they said, was maintaining “good order and discipline” in the ranks. The Marines have called the song “clearly inappropriate.”
“I cannot say if there is a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice or the law of armed conflict. Lawyers have looked at it and they’re kind of scratching their heads, which is why we’re doing this preliminary inquiry,” said Lt. Col. Scott Fazekas, a U.S. Marine Corps spokesman at the Pentagon.
Maj. Shawn Haney, spokeswoman at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina, said the preliminary inquiry is expected to last a couple of days. The military will then decide whether to move to a more formal investigation that potentially could lead to discipline.
See the video for yourself: Hadji Girl.
Frank says:
